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25 August – 8 October 2017

The precious ‘Cantastorie’, a fascinating and unknown accumulation of images and image cycles, were handed down from one generation to the next in two families of minstrels and puppeteers from Naples and Foggia who used them to place great cultural issues literally before an audience. In a way they were the first comics, full of beautiful princesses, valiant knights, chaotic battles, gruesome tales and voracious monsters. Some 100 magnificently colourful masterpieces of folk art created in the first decades of the 20th century have been restored and are now receiving their first museum showing at the Kunsthaus. Just for a change, we’re turning the established canon of ‘high culture’ upside down. The ‘Cantastorie’ are unquestionably a sensuous, humorous and instructive feast for the eyes, but they also need explanations to bring their content to life. So we’re setting up a stage in the middle of the exhibition, transforming the venerable exhibition gallery and its more than 1,000 m2 of space into a marketplace, a venue for lively exchange, with concerts, events and parties.

For more information please see the programme of events (PDF). Tickets for all evening events can be purchased in advance from ticketcorner.ch and at the Kunsthaus cash desk. Admission to the exhibition is included.